translated from Spanish: Américo: “After so long I thought I was forgotten, but the United States showed me that I was not”

It was on March 13 of last year when Américo came down for the last time from a stage before the pause forced by the pandemic. At that time the benchmark of Chilean cumbia was in New York, ending a double date that was followed by a concert in Connecticut.” Then the pandemic came and we had to cancel everything,” says the voice of ‘El Embrujo’. “But I felt that something had been left pending, so I was connected all the time with what was happening there, seeing when we could continue.” That was why as soon as he learned of the decrease in restrictions for live music in the United States, the artist began to organize with his team his return to the stages just where he had left a year and a half ago: in mid-August Américo moved to North America to continue a tour that between the 13th and the 21st of that month had him playing full band in seven dates for places like Queens, Brooklyn and Newark. He is now preparing a second part of the tour for November, with shows in cities such as Georgia, Florida and Washington.” It was great to come back, we missed this rhythm of traveling and playing a lot. It was really about starting over. The first shows were more contained, but already the second or third show was better, it went from less to more, “says the musician from his home in La Florida, where he is kept in quarantine with his family. “People had a very, very good response. After so long I thought I was forgotten, but the United States proved me not.” It was, in the artist’s imagination, like giving play to a scene that had been paused for about a year and a half. Although with nuances: during the time he was without stepping on a stage, Américo dedicated himself to working on new material that, in fact, he presented in his shows in North America.In addition to “Por Ellas”, the album of 12 original songs by women artists (from Ana Gabriel and Gloria Estefan to Mon Laferte) that the singer released in June, now he is also preparing the release of a new album entitled “Cumbia Despechada”, which will be released in the coming months.” That record is ready, we have already delivered it. It has a very organic sound, very accordion. The exception is a song that is going to come out with Arte Elegante and Rocío Quiroz, which is a little more pop. It also has some covers that I rescued and played in the United States. It worked super well,” says Américo about the work, of which in March he had already advanced ‘Júrame’, a single of sound close to Mexican music. The sound of ‘Júrame’, and that will also have the rest of the album, did you think of it as part of your internationalization plan? Totally. I had already done a great job in Peru, in Argentina, in Bolivia, in Ecuador. I had been doing something super powerful also in Colombia. But with this sound I think I finish grabbing a definitely Latino audience, total, including Mexico, Panama, Colombia, which is where you hear this more regional, more ranchero thing. And it works, it works super super well.What can be anticipated from “Cumbia Despechada”? It’s very much in the wave of ‘Júrame’, with this accordion thing, without trombones but trumpets, very organic, very acoustic. And the lyrics are full spite, full drink, cut your veins, you deceived me and I charge them. That is why it is called “Cumbia Despechada”, because thematically all the lyrics are from spite. It’s 14 songs and it’s nice. We are going to work on it, surely we are going to release this single, a couple of more singles and then we are going to present the complete album. Why was your return to live in the United States and not in Chile? It is that here they have still taken a long time to give solutions for this artistic-cultural issue, there are not many alternatives. No one speaks out, and today the topics of interest are others, politicians, constituents, criminals, the pandemic itself. But we didn’t come out of that circle. So it’s been super complicated. No one takes charge, no one says anything, no one takes responsibility for this. But I imagine that the desire to tour Chile is there. Yes of course. The artists here are all trapped and eager to return, because there have already been two summers that we have had to be quite contained. So hopefully soon we can have better news and we can start to return to our activities here in the country. Well, there are some activities for September. October we are also organizing it, capable that we can advance the tour a little, and well, in November there is this series of shows that has us super happy because there are also five concerts with Los Angeles Azules that are the maximum, thes Rolling Stones of cumbia in the world. They’re tremendous, people love them and follow them a lot and it’s going to be five concerts with them. So we are super happy. In November we also have something very nice with a youth symphony here in the country, in a very nice place too. So we’re coming back and it’s not slowly. I’m super lucky, I haven’t stopped working.



Original source in Spanish

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